The present invention relates to processing a part of a plucks set from a carcass of e.g. a pig, said part of a plucks set comprising the gullet and windpipe, referred to as “the pipes”, the larynx, the heart and the lungs, i.e. said part of a plucks set is the so-called “heart plucks set”.
Thus the present invention relates to an apparatus for automatic cutting of organs from a plucks set from a carcass by means of cutting means, said plucks set comprising larynx, gullet and windpipe, lungs and heart. Moreover, the invention relates to a method for automatic cutting of organs from a heart plucks set from a carcass.
An apparatus of this type is known from our Danish patent application PA 2000 01499, which describes an apparatus, in which three circular cutting means are mounted with their respective centres in each their respective corner of a predetermined triangle. The cutting means may be moved outwards to give room for the introduction of a plucks set in the space present between them. When the cutting means are taken back and the plucks set is pulled up through the space, the cutting means will cut off the two lungs and the heart, so that only the larynx and the pipes are left on the suspension means.
This known apparatus functions satisfactorily as long as the plucks set is complete, i.e. when it has two lungs and a heart, which are complete. By a satisfactory cutting is to be understood that the organs are not deteriorated, and that the cut is positioned so precisely that heart fat and the bronchial tubes are not cut off together with the organs, but remain on the pipes. In practice, it does, however, often occur that the heart during the slaughtering process has been cut open by a veterinary with a view to controlling for diseases, that bigger or smaller pieces of one or both lungs are missing or that the plucks set is damaged in another way.